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Killer in the family podcast
A true crime podcast exploring men who kill their families.
Killer in the family podcast
Episode 62 - The Austin Family
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In July 2000 31 year old Claire Quinn and her two children – 8 year old Kieran and 7 year old Jade were killed by husband and father Phillip Austin in Northamptonshire in the UK. He also killed the family’s two dogs. Absconding after he murdered his whole family Austin was found and arrested a week later in the Lake District. Initially trying to plead not guilty to the murders Austin was found guilty of murder and given three life sentences.
This is the story of the Austin Family.
Information and support
· Samaritans UK Contact Us | Samaritans
· National Domestic Violence Helpline UK 0808 2000 247
· Advocacy After Fatal Domestic Abuse (AAFDA) Home - AAFDA
· Women’s Aid Home - Women's Aid
· National Domestic Abuse Helpline UK 0808 2000 247
· Mental health support USA Mental Health America | Homepage | Mental Health America
· Domestic abuse helpline USA 1.800.799.SAFE Domestic Violence Support | National Domestic Violence Hotline
References
Phillip Austin's scarring familicide of his wife and young children | Crime+Investigation UK
BBC News | UK | Hidden rage drove father to kill
Phillip Austin (The Northampton Family Annihilation) | British Murders Podcast (S03E03) | True Crime
Phillip Austin: Triple killer will not be moved to open prison - BBC News
Credits
Hosted and created by Clare Laxton @ladylaxton
Produced by: Clare Laxton
Killer in the family podcast (buzzsprout.com)
Music from Pixabay.
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Hi there and welcome to Killer in the Family podcast. I'm your host, claire Laxton. Welcome to episode 62 of Killer in the Family podcast. I just wanted to flag that this will be the last episode before I take a bit of a break. There might be a special bonus episode in April, but Killer in the Family will be back with regular weekly episodes at the end of April. So Friday the 25th will be the next one that drops. For now, let's get on with this episode.
Speaker 1:In July 2000, 31-year-old Claire Quinn and her two children, 8-year-old Kieran and 7-year-old Jade, were killed by husband and father Philip Austin in Northamptonshire in the UK. He also killed the family's two dogs, absconding after he murdered his whole family. Austin was found and arrested a week later in the Lake District, initially trying to plead not guilty to the murders. Austin was found guilty of murder and given three life sentences. This is the story of the Austin family. This is going to be a really tough listen team, as all our episodes are to be honest and, as usual, there are links to information and support in the episode notes if you need it. So let's get straight into it and talk about Claire and her children Now, like a lot of cases we talk about on this podcast.
Speaker 1:There is lots of information out there about the perpetrator and what he did, but not loads about the victims. I've dug out as much as I can about Claire and her children to make sure that they are centred in this episode. So Claire Quinn was 31 years old when she was killed by her husband in July 2000. She was born to parents Carol and Harry Quinn, and had a brother called Matthew as well. Now I couldn't find out loads about Claire's early life, but by the time she met Philip Austin she was working as a nurse in Northamptonshire in the Midlands of the UK. Claire's mum, carol, had a really close relationship with Claire and recalled quote Claire and I would go shopping every Thursday and we went round the cafes to see who did the best cappuccino. Now that like sounds like something many of us will do with our mum. So it seems like they had a really lovely and close relationship In 1991, so Claire was in her sort of early 20s.
Speaker 1:Here she met Philip Austin in a pub in Northamptonshire. According to the British Murders podcast episode on this case, austin bought Claire a rose in the pub. Now I don't know if anyone else remembers this, but there used to be like rose sellers who'd go around pubs and restaurants and get people to buy rose for whoever they were with. I can like really envisage it now. It was pretty awkward, to be honest.
Speaker 1:Now, philip Austin, who Claire met in the pub, was born in 1969 and there isn't lots of information out there about his childhood or family. But he was a forklift driver later on in his marriage to Claire and I'm not sure if that's what he always did for work. However, now Claire became pregnant with her and Austin's first child pretty soon after. They met, like months after, and Kieran was born in the early 1990s. Kieran was just eight years old when he was killed by his father, his grandmother. So Claire's mother, carol, said about him quote Kieran was my first grandchild and he never stopped talking, he was always asking questions and he loved his mum. Now, shortly afterwards, claire and Austin would welcome a daughter into their family.
Speaker 1:Jade was born in early 1993 and was just seven years old when she was killed by her father. Again, carol describes Jade as, quote Jade was my husband's little princess. She could do nothing wrong in his eyes and if Claire ever phoned to say Jade has been a nightmare today, harry would joke and say he didn't believe it possible. Claire and Austin completed their family with a cat and two dogs. So the two dogs were poodles and they were called Dandy and Sooty and the cat was called Snoopy. So they're all pretty much named after kids sort of cartoon characters, I think.
Speaker 1:And in 1992 Claire and Austin moved to Northampton just a few months before Jade was born and they got married. The British Murders podcast talked about watching their wedding video and how Austin's speech was like really awkward on that video, and also that his best man at their wedding was actually a friend of Claire's. So maybe he didn't really have any close friends or family. Now, as has become a very familiar trope in this podcast, although the Austens seemed like a classic happy family, there was trouble behind the scenes. It always makes me think that if anyone ever describes a family as the perfect couple or the perfect family, then that should ring alarm bells. So behind closed doors and again this is something that we're very familiar with Austin was abusive and controlling.
Speaker 1:According to Claire's mum, he would often buy like really lavish things for himself, such as golf clubs or watches when the family was struggling financially, but wouldn't spend that money on his family when they needed it. Now, according to the British Murders podcast, he also verbally abused Claire and like really, really was horrible to her about her weight. Like what an absolute bag of crap here. He would also leave for days and days after argument, which obviously made Claire feel incredibly guilty and was incredibly manipulative of Austin. And what we have here, team, is the exhibition of classic coercive and controlling behaviours Economic abuse by spending all the family's money in a very selfish way, verbally abusing and putting Claire down and emotionally manipulating her by leaving for days on end, taking and keeping that control. Now, many of these issues led Claire to consider leaving Austin and her mum definitely spoke to her about divorcing him as well, and indeed they went through marriage counselling as a couple and Austin apparently went through anger management on his own as well.
Speaker 1:Now at this point so in the late 90s, early 2000, claire was gaining a bit of independence. She worked part-time at Northamptonshire County Council and she gained her own driving licence. Now, I'm sure that that didn't go down well with Austin, as he probably enjoyed exerting control over where Claire went by being the one who drove her. Now, the month before Austin killed his whole family, they all went on holiday to the Canary Islands and, according to a family friend who was with Austin, he wasn't really happy on that holiday. He was constantly questioning why they had booked it and also got into an argument with a friend as well like proper squaring up to him. Now, once they got back from the family holiday, they were thinking about booking another one something we all do and it was this discussion that would lead to the devastation of a family.
Speaker 1:On Monday 17 17th of July in the year 2000, claire Quinn's mother, carol, received a call that set off alarm bells in her head. Her grandchildren's school called her to say that Kieran and Jade hadn't been in school that week and that they couldn't get hold of their parents, claire and Austin parents, claire and Austin. Now Carol recalled that she hadn't heard from Claire that week either, but assumed it was either because she was working shifts or she was going through something with Austin, which happened very regularly, as we know. Carol was also called by Claire's neighbours who said they hadn't seen her or the kids for a while, and that was what decided it for her. She decided to go to Claire's house with her husband Harry, to find out what was going on, what they found at Claire and Austin's family home would haunt her and her husband for the rest of her life. After receiving no answer from their knocks, harry got into the house and almost immediately came out and told Carol not to go in because Claire had done something to herself. Carol immediately thought that it wasn't Claire doing something to herself and went inside. She found Claire dead on the floor. She was surrounded by pools of blood and, according to the British Murders podcast, a dead dog as well. Carol and Harry went on to find the second family dog dead and then went upstairs to find their two young grandchildren killed in their beds. In a heartbreaking coincidence, carol found her daughter, claire dead on her actual wedding anniversary with Austin.
Speaker 1:Carol described the moment that she found her daughter and grandchildren murdered to the local paper. She said, quote it was the worst moment of my life, beyond anyone's worst nightmares. I have an imprint of finding their bodies on my mind all day, every day. Sometimes I think about it and I weep in the shower. There are times when I can't close my eyes without thinking of their tiny bodies, left there like bags of rubbish. What he did was evil and I just cannot imagine the heartbreaking pain that Carol goes through, as she said, every day, having found her daughter and grandchildren murdered just one day in the summer.
Speaker 1:The one person who wasn't in the house was husband and father Philip Austin. He quickly became the chief suspect in the murders and police launched a manhunt for him immediately. Austin was found a few days later, on the 20th of July, in the Lake District in the northwest of England. He was in his car and had attempted to take his own life, but had been unsuccessful. In his time on the run, he had apparently visited Blackpool and Scarborough and was now due to face trial for what he had done and Scarborough and was now due to face trial for what he had done. And this is what Pelley's pieced together. That happened on that fateful day that Austin killed his wife, children and family dogs. This is going to be a really tough lesson team.
Speaker 1:So it was Monday, the 10th of July in the year 2000, and Austin came home from a night shift as a forklift truck driver. Claire had already got Kieran and Jade ready for school and he took them to drop them off, a usual routine which saw him come home afterwards, presumably to sleep after a night shift. Instead, this day, austin went to McDonald's after he'd dropped the kids off, presumably for like a McMuffin meal or something like that. Before he went home and while at McDonald's, according to the British Murders podcast, he read an auto trader and looked at some cars that he might want to buy. Then, in a huge diversion from his usual routine, austin visited a brothel and, for the first time in his life, paid for sex with a sex worker. Definitely not a normal Monday morning, I would imagine. He then went to a DIY store and bought a huge rubber mallet, purportedly for some work in the garden, but that's not what it would be used for.
Speaker 1:Austin went back to his family home, where Claire was, and she sort of wondered why he hadn't been back straight after dropping the kids off. Apparently, they got into an argument in the upstairs of the house and it was around like booking another holiday, presumably something Claire wanted to do, but Austin didn't. Now what we think happened next is you know from Austin's account, claire isn't here to tell that story. So this is what police think happened Out of nowhere during the argument, austin took this huge rubber mallet that he had just bought and swung it at Claire. He hit her on the arm and the violent attack from Austin would carry on, like throughout the house, as Claire was trying to get away from him. She apparently tried to leave through the front door, but he slammed it on her, still trying to presumably strike her with a mallet.
Speaker 1:Claire somehow ended up on the floor downstairs in the house. Maybe she tripped, maybe he pushed her. While she was on the floor, austin proceeded to repeatedly bang her head until she lost consciousness. He then got that bloody rubber mallet again and hit her around the head with it. Not finished, he got two knives and proceeded to stab her repeatedly. He stabbed her with such force that one of the knife handles snapped off, and yet still he wasn't finished. No-transcript, this is just such an awful, awful attack and clearly pre-planned, with Austin buying the mallet and also stopping to get the knives and the bra.
Speaker 1:Once he had violently murdered his wife, austin then went back to a normal sort of day. He washed himself off, called Claire's work to say that she'd injured her back so he wouldn't be at her shift that day, and then went to collect his children from school as if nothing had happened. He took the kids out for fish and chips straight after school and then took them home. He must have hidden Claire, or Claire was in such a place that they didn't see her when they got home. He apparently then slipped them some Nital, which is like a sort of sleep medication, and proceeded to strangle them in their bedrooms. Sadly, it would seem that they were not totally unconscious, so they would fight their dad back before he finally killed them both. Austin then fled the scene. Now, as you can imagine, the murders of Claire, kieran and Jade caused huge grief and shock from their family, friends and community and I just can't imagine the heartbreak of losing such a lovely family to total unnecessary violence.
Speaker 1:On a side note, if you haven't heard about the murders of Claire, kieran and Jade before and you do live in the UK, then it's probably important to flag that there was another high profile murder case happening at exactly the same time in the UK. Some listeners might recall the abduction and murder of a nine-year-old girl in West Sussex called Sarah Payne, and this was absolutely huge news in the UK at a time when disappeared on the 1st of July 2000. And sadly her dead body was found on the 17th of July 2000, which was the same day that Carol and Harry found Claire, kieran and Jade in their home. The abduction and murder of Sarah Payne was such huge news in the UK that it effectively blocked out all other news. I mean, I could probably do a whole other podcast about which victims get news coverage and which don't, but for now I think it's just important to know. A local man called Roy Whiting was convicted of the abduction and murder of Sarah Payne in December 2001 and sentenced to life imprisonment. Anyway, I just thought that might be useful context on what was going on in the UK at the same time as Claire, kieran and Jade's murders.
Speaker 1:Now, as we talked about earlier, after a nationwide manhunt, austin was found and arrested for the murders of his wife and children. When he was initially arrested, he said that he killed Claire because she was always arguing with him. Well, it's absolutely pathetic. He then apparently said that he thought of killing the children after he'd like killed Claire. So an equally vague and totally pathetic answer, like the thought just occurred to him. I just don't believe it for one second. Do not buy the. He just snapped or just saw to him. I just don't believe it for one second. Do not buy the. He just snapped or just saw red argument.
Speaker 1:I truly believe that Austin planned the murders, and planned them for his own selfish and controlling reasons. He saw that Claire was getting more independent, maybe had an inkling that her family was talking of her divorcing him. He could not stand the idea of not having total control over Claire, so bought a mallet and planned to kill her. I believe that he killed his children to save face, so to like. Save himself the shame of having to explain what he had done to his children. His reasons were motivated by pure selfishness and control, and anything else he says is just BS and a load of crap.
Speaker 1:Austin faced trial in March 2001 in Northampton Crown Court and, after initially pleading not guilty on grounds of diminished responsibility, he changed his plea to guilty and was sentenced for the murders. I'm so glad that he changed his plea because, as you know, if there is a not guilty plea, then they have to go through a full trial and often the family are put through. You know hearing all about their victims, what their lives were like, having to look at the perpetrator every day. It's just a really traumatic thing for families to go through. So thankfully, he changed his plea to guilty and was sentenced for the murders. He was sentenced to three concurrent life sentences and in passing this sentence, judge Mr Justice Potts said I cannot find the words to describe this case it is beyond the bounds of belief.
Speaker 1:Now, there was some initial controversy around the sentence that Austin received, because originally he was sentenced to serve 17 years, but Claire's family felt like that wasn't enough and the Home Secretary of the time, david Blunkett, stepped in and had the sentence increased to a sentence of a minimum of 20 years. And, just as a side note, although the judiciary and political spheres are separate here in England and Wales, the Home Secretary then, or Secretary of State for Justice now does have the power to intervene in sentencing and parole decisions, for justice now does have the power to intervene in sentencing and parole decisions. So Austin got a prison sentence of 20 years, which actually takes us up to 2021. Now, in April 2021, a parole hearing concluded that Austin could be recommended for a move to an open prison where he'd have more freedoms and be subject to sort of less supervision. Now, claire's family and mother in particular, were horrified at the prospect of this and the Secretary of State for Justice once again intervened this time it was Robert Buckland and decided that Austin would not be moved to an open prison. This request was once again denied in 2023 and his case is up for parole again this year, in 2025.
Speaker 1:Speaking about the possibility that Austin could be moved to an open prison and possibly released, claire's mother, carol, told the Northampton Chronicle and Echo quote it should never be happening. He should not be considered for parole and that's the reason I've done everything I have since it happened. I've tried my best, but it's not going to be good enough, as one day he will be out. He should be in prison for life. My daughter and grandchildren will never have a life, so why should he? Why he did it? I don't think anyone will ever know. I don't even know if he knows.
Speaker 1:This episode is dedicated to Claire, kieran and Jade, to the lives they led and the difference they made to family, friends and their community, to their lives cut way too short by the person who should have loved and protected them the most. We remember them. This has been Killer in the Family podcast written and produced by me, claire Laxton. I'll be back in a few weeks, on the 25th of April, with a new episode. Don't forget to send me any comments or questions to my insta at killerinthefamilypod, or through a text via a link in the episode notes. Do let me know any stories you'd like me to cover as well, and don't forget that you can buy me a coffee if you like the podcast and help support it's running. The link is in the episode notes and thank you so much to everyone for your support, so no-transcript.
